A Little Hybrid: Klaroline
by Soladara
Summary: When presented with both her future self and Klaus's hunted daughter, Caroline takes the child and races for New Orleans and the protection of the Originals. But showing Klaus his daughter has its own challenges and it's not long before Caroline is embarking on a trip across the country and beyond with a little girl that calls her Mommy and a lost and broken Original Hybrid.
1. Chapter 1

Description

When presented with both her future self, and Klaus's hunted daughter, Anna, Caroline takes the three year old and races for New Orleans and the protection of the Originals. But presenting Klaus with his daughter has its own challenges and it's not long before Caroline in embarking on a trip across the country and beyond with a little girl that calls her Mommy and a lost and broken Original Hybrid.

Hidden in the shadows, other players also engage in game of hide and seek. Witches, werewolves, vampires, and more fight to win and capture the prize, a little girl who might just be more than she appears.

As Caroline's feelings for Anna and Klaus grow, she fights an internal battle; whether to hold onto her memories of the cruel and calculating Hybrid or give in to Klaus's prophetic words of forever and allow herself to take more than just a stolen afternoon of what she truly wants.

Preface

This story takes place around the middle of The Vampire Diaries Season 5 and The Originals Season 1. Much of it is cannon, but not all of it. Some things that will be helpful to know from the onset:

-Katherine did not change bodies with Elena and did not die.

-Bonnie is not the anchor.

-Rebekah never left New Orleans.

-The entire Whitmore Society arch never happened.

-The story starts at the beginning of the summer after Caroline's freshman year of college. The timeline between The Vampire Diaries and The Originals may be off by a few months, particularly with regards to the end of Caroline's freshman year and Hayley Marshall's pregnancy.

Day 1

Day 1: Morning

Vampire hearing had its drawbacks and right now Caroline Forbes was experiencing one of the worst; being awoken from a perfectly wonderful dream where she'd managed to rescued Stefan, put he and Elena back together, and convinced her best girl friend to kick Damon Salvatore to the curb. But of course, right at the part where Elena was going to tell her she'd been right all along, that Damon was an arrogant jerk and a train wreck, someone had to knock on the door and ruin it for her.

With a frustrated scream, Caroline rolled out of bed and threw on her black kimono robe, tying the sash as she walked down the brightly lit hallway filled with childhood memories. Normally she'd have let her mom get it, but after three years, her mom had finally agreed to take a much deserved three week vacation to Italy, where an old friend of hers happened to live. Never mind that said old friend was a guy, recently divorced, and cyber stocking her mom on Facebook, Caroline liked him; after all, he was smart enough to send her mom flowers-the right kind too, which spoke volumes. Liz seemed happy to go, and had even confessed to an attraction with Jeff, though she'd insisted he wasn't interested in her like that, despite all the evidence. Her mom could be dense sometimes.

The house was eerily quiet, and even though she knew her mom was, by now, living it up on a much deserved romantic rendezvous with the handsome Jeff, Caroline couldn't help but kind of wish the house wasn't so empty.

At the top of the stairs, she skirted her black and silver luggage, already packed and waiting for Katherine. The mega bitch herself had actually turned out to be pretty concerned about Stefan, and Caroline had to begrudgingly admit that Katherine really did care about him. The two had mini-bonded over their mutual desire to bring Stefan back from his blood binged trek across America; and were now preparing to do the unthinkable-set out on a road trip to track him down and bring him home. It wasn't that Caroline completely trusted Katherine, but she trusted her enough to know that finding Stefan was a priority of hers, and she could at least trust Katherine's five centuries of connections and insight into Stefan's baser tendencies to help her track him down. If after that, she had to remind her best friend that Katherine was a skanky ho, well, no problem, she was more than happy to do that.

The stairs creaked under her feet, and for just a second she considered how ridiculous it was that a vampire, who relied on stealth, had a house so noisy, that is, before she remembered that creaky floor boards were just as much a help as a hindrance sometimes.

Sunlight warmed her skin as she passed through it, her eyes catching the falling dust moats, still fascinated after all these years at how beautiful vampire senses could make the world around her.

Within weeks of becoming a vampire, Caroline knew she'd been born to be one. She'd taken to it so easily, even Stefan had commented that he'd never known anyone who assimilated the hunger as easily as she had. It had almost felt natural from the beginning, and though hunger wasn't foreign to her, she knew it didn't drive her like it did her counterparts.

Maybe that was why she found it so hard to forget about Klaus, they were both made to be what they were.

With a huff and a mental shake, Caroline stalked to the front door and threw it open-she was not going to think about Klaus AGAIN.

The view outside the door was a sunny image of normalcy, but there was no one on the porch. Taking a step outside, she peered down the street, but no one appeared to be rushing from the scene of the crime, or going door to door selling raffle tickets to buy softball equipment.

Puzzled, Caroline stepped back into the house and closed the door, feeling her self growing into an even more stormy mood now that she knew she'd lost the last few minutes of the perfect "I told you so" dream she desperately wanted to come true. After all, Damon was a psychopath-just like Klaus-which is exactly why neither she nor Elena belonged with either one of them. Not that Caroline had given Klaus much through since he'd left Mystic Falls a year ago. Nope, instead she'd gone off to college and had deliberately not thought of him.

Well, until Tyler showed his sorry face, and brought up his insane revenge agenda that proved to Caroline that Hybrids made bad boyfriends. And then she'd gone back to witness Katherine's death only to meet up with Klaus, convince him not to gloat at Katherine's death bed, and then had wild and crazy vampire sex with him against a tree. And a rock. And just with him holding her up—man he was strong! But then she'd ended it! She'd walked away, and she hadn't turned back around, and he'd left and no one had heard from him since. Then Katherine hadn't died after all thanks to some Traveller magic or whatever, and that was it, she'd gone back to school and finished her year in peace and quiet.

But she couldn't ignore the annoying thought that tickled the back of her mind- she'd listened to his voicemail message about a hundred thousand times. That of course, did not mean she was going to fall for his Ted Bundy charm. Instead, she was going to remind herself, as she had since she'd left him in the clearing, that good girls only end up with bad boys in the movies, because psychopaths could only be fixed by plot twists, not real life people. Klaus was a leaking radioactive bomb of evil, and no matter how cute his dimples were, she deserved better than to be his "I told you so."

With a turn, she made her way out of the foyer and into the kitchen. A quick check of the microwave told her she still had a half an hour before Katherine was supposed to show up.

With the dust motes still dancing in the sunbeams, Caroline made her way to the white fridge and pulled out a blood pack hidden behind the vegetables. Half of her supply was already in the freezer, the cooler on the countertop waiting to be filled, but she'd left two in the fridge, one for breakfast and the other to eat in front of Katherine as a taunting reminder that she could snap the now immortal bitch's neck whenever she wanted, and since she almost always wanted, it was going to be a long trip—best set the ground rules before Katherine's mouth made her do things she really didn't want to do.

Throwing a coffee cup of water into the microwave to boil, Caroline turned to wait, her eye catching the phone sitting on the buffet. Not for the first time she considered calling Elena and demanding that she man up and come with her to look for Stefan. But Damon had somehow convinced her that Stefan needed time to find himself, and if that meant giving into his more basic instincts along the way, well, all vampires had to learn sometime. Maybe it was those soulful blue eyes, or the amazing tantric sex, but whatever it was, Elena listened to him. The possibility that Elena might be pushing Stefan away to prove to herself that her destiny was still in her control, that some crazy doppelganger curse wasn't running her life and forcing her to be with Stefan, did cross her mind, had more than once, but Caroline preferred to think it was just the sex, because to do so otherwise, gave Elena's lack of care a little too much understandable credibility.

Unfortunately, Elena was not a fan of Caroline's "You're going to regret this" speech, and had spent the last few weeks of school and so far, the entire summer, pointedly ignoring her calls, texts, emails, and occasional visits to the boarding house. It was so childish. But if Elena wanted to spend her summer ignoring her, then fine, Caroline would go chase after Stefan with Katherine. And wouldn't it just burn Elena if she and Katherine became besties on the car trip.

Yeah right!

The microwave dinged, and Caroline pulled the bubbling mug out, sliding the blood bag inside to warm. Microwaved blood worked in a pinch, but it never tasted right, she preferred the slower method of heating it gradually in water, and stretched her arms above her head to wait the few extra minutes before she could eat. Thankfully, Caroline was able to stave off her vampire hunger for days at a time with only mild discomfort, which helped since everyone else around her was a two bag a day junkie. Since their town only supported a small hospital and a few clinics, her friends already made the blood necessity of this town seem suspicious. That had been one nice thing about Klaus and his siblings, missing blood bags were never suspicious when they were in town; mostly because people were always getting injured or dying, it just seemed more reasonable.

Another perfect example of how Mystic Falls was better without Klaus.

With a sigh, Caroline played with the blood bag in the mug, "Bonnie, if I could hear you right now, I know you'd tell me that going after Stefan was the right thing, teaming up with Katherine was idiotic, and thinking about Klaus was messed up." Smiling, she pulled out the blood bag, emptied the cup of water into the sink, and replaced it with the blood. "Of course, I can't hear you, so it's not helping me." She took a sip, savouring the blood even though it never, ever tasted right from a blood bag, too weak and bland, "Then again, you're probably not even here."

Sighing again, Caroline cleaned up her mess, stuffing the now empty bag into the lidded coffee can conspicuously hidden in the recycling bin. Slowly, she sipped the warm, slightly sweet liquid. Bonnie had been dead a full year now, but had thankfully been a huge help to them getting rid of Silas and Tessa. But their final deaths had cost Bonnie her chance at crossing back into the land of the living. The good news was that Jeremy could still talk to her, the bad news, he didn't want much to do with her now a days.

Elena's brother had seen the Travellers as a way of getting out of Mystic Falls and starting over, so when the freak who'd taken over Matt's body had his consciousness placed inside a mystical amulet filled with strange black liquid, Jeremy had volunteered to return him to his people. Elena had of course tried to talk him out of it, but Jeremy was fast turning into his own thinking person, more disgusted than swayed by Elena's antics. Caroline couldn't much blame him, Jeremy was smart, smart enough to leave Mystic Falls and try to build a life somewhere else.

Last time they'd heard anything, Jeremy had settled in with the Travellers and hooked up quite nicely with one of the gypsy princesses. She wished him the best, but was more than just a little annoyed that he'd left them with no way to communicate with Bonnie. Caroline couldn't even be sure Bonnie was still hanging around—though something in her gut told her she was; call it vampire instincts, but they'd never steered her wrong before, and until they did, she was going to trust them.

Another glance at the clock told her she had just enough time to jump in the shower and pull herself together before it was time to head out, so with one last gulp, and a quick rinse in the sink, Caroline turned to make her way back upstairs.

Which is how she came face to face, with herself.

The other Caroline looked exactly like her, same long blond hair, bright blue eyes, and trim athletic figure. The other her even had her same customary style, stylish top, tailored blue jeans, and perfect makeup. But the differences were also glaringly obvious, while she herself was shocked and hardly dressed for company, the other her wore a terrified expression, and had in her arms, what looked like a dark haired, blue eyed toddler, who was presently looking at her with some confusion.

"What the—"

"Don't scream!" Her other self warned, her eyes glancing down at the child she carried. She took a step forward, but Caroline was smart enough to know that coming face to face with her own doppelganger was never a good thing, and she drew back towards the kitchen and the door leading to the forest beyond. The other her stopped and looked for a moment as if she were juggling a thousand thoughts and trying to make the right call. When she finally spoke, there was no denying that the woman in front of her was indeed herself.

"My name is Caroline, and I am not your doppelganger, or any other kind of evil psycho. I need you to stay calm, and listen to me, because we don't have a lot of time." The child, looked between the two of them, obviously noticing no difference, and the look of confusion continued to grow.

"OK, say for just a second I believe you, what exactly is going on?" Tension raced through her muscles, singing to her, feeding the fight or flight instincts that ruled vampires. All of her senses came alive, hungry for action, but Caroline held perfectly still, waiting.

With a sigh, and a caress of the child's back, the other blond looked towards the living room, "We can sit down. I mean, I know what this must look like, that you have to be freaking out, and you should, but not because of the reasons your thinking."

Caroline shook her head, "How about we skip everything else and you tell me who you are and what's going on?"

"Mommy?" The little voice was so unsure, the two syllables sounding off in her ears as she realized speech was still something this child was learning. Caroline assessed her age around three, though if she was three, she was a late talker.

"It's OK, sweetheart, I know this is scary, but remember what Daddy said, you have to be brave for Mommy." The little girl looked sceptical but nodded, laying her head trustingly on the woman's shoulder.

Looking back at Caroline's shocked expression, her other self indicated the living room, "Still rather do this in the hallway?" One look at the little girl, and Caroline shook her head, following the other woman into the receiving room and watching as she easily navigated the furniture before sitting in the exact same spot she herself always occupied in this room. A fact the other her quickly noticed herself with a half formed smile, "It seems like only a couple of weeks ago I was in this room. Mom really should have redecorated years ago."

"OK, glad you have an opinion about the décor, but how about instead of critiquing the many sad instances of purple and green in this room, you tell me what the hel-ck is going on." She caught herself, watching those baby eyes that looked right at her.

Her other self nodded, "Sorry, I'm trying to figure out how to tell you everything so you don't think this is some trap—which you'd have every right to think it was. I mean, we don't have the best luck with people who look like other people, now do we?" The other version of herself, absently leaned down to kiss the crown of curly dark hair. "I don't really know how to tell you this, so I'm just going to say it, and hopefully, you'll believe me."

Naturally, her other self lifted the little toddler, and shifted her to her other hip, using her chin to indicate the winged back chair her mother preferred, and to which Caroline moved to stand behind, not quite willing to give up the standing advantage yet. Her other self, smiled, seeming to know exactly what she was thinking. She lifted her hand and ran it over the child's head, "This, is Anna; and while I know it's going to be hard for you to believe, she's your daughter."

Caroline leaned over the top of the chair, "I'd show you why I know that's impossible, but I'm guessing you already know what I can do, what I am."

The other her nodded, absently rubbing small circles into the little girl's back. The contrast of her frosted polish fingers against the toddlers purple overalls and flower print shirt, was almost mesmerizing. "I know, more than you do," those piercing blue eyes looked up and captured her own, "I know exactly what you are, which is why I'm here. Anna is your daughter, maybe not by blood, but she's every bit your daughter, my daughter." Strong emotions had her cuddling the child to her chest, "She's ours, our miracle.

"You're exactly like me, controlling, organized, snarky, but having a daughter, being Anna's mother, has made us so much more." Her words paint a picture, and Caroline couldn't help but see it. "We were so selfish before Anna, trying to control the world around us, thinking we had all the answers. But we don't have them, Caroline, we never did. Anna has brought magic to our world, chaos and order, and I promise you, I swear it, you are an amazing mother." She smiled, a true if not a bit sad smile, "We were made to be her mother, to love her, to show her the world and teach her.

"I wish I could show you all the amazing things she's taught us since she came into our lives, but that's not how this works. You'll just have to trust me when I tell you, you'll take to being a mother even better than you took to being a vampire. It's your destiny."

Right. Caroline shook her head, trying to make sense of everything, "Nice speech, really, but how about you cut the drama act and tell me how this is even possible."

"Bonnie," her other self answered, as if that one name answered every question she could possibly have—and sadly, maybe it did, "it all began with her."

"Bonnie. That's great, but I can't see Bonnie, no one can, so it's not like I can ask her if you're telling the truth, and like you said, I've had bad luck lately with doppelgangers."

"I know," the other her replied, standing, again the movement of shifting Anna into a more comfortable position a rote action. "I know all about what you've been through, because I went through it too. I'm not a doppelganger, I'm you, from the future. I know how that sounds—"

"No, I'm pretty sure you don't know—"

"Yes I do, because I've done this before!" Frustration brought her voice up an octave, before she shook her head and drew in a deep breath. "I know what you're thinking, because I thought it myself when the other me suddenly appeared before me and thrust a baby at me telling me she was mine. I get that, seriously, but right now, just like back then, I don't have the luxury of giving you my whole wild story. You're going to have to take some things on faith, Caroline. I know, you'd prefer facts, but I don't have a way of proving anything to you. I left my time with everything you see, to protect my daughter, and that's what I'm going to do."

Turning, she set the child on the couch lovingly, "You need to understand a few things, first and most important, Anna is a very, very special little girl. Because of that, every supernatural creature wants a piece of her. Some of them want to use her, others," she looked down at her daughter, "want to K.I.L.L. her, and still others want to lock her away where no one can ever find her."

Too much information all at once, Caroline held up her hand to stop her twin, "Just a second—"

"We don't have a second!" Caroline knew that tone, it was hers, it meant she needed to say something, and everyone was going to damn well listen to her, because it was actually really important. So she closed her mouth, and listened. Trying to regain control, her other self took another deep breath and continued.

"You need to get to Klaus and his siblings, they'll protect you, and they'll protect Anna."

Nope. Caroline began to shake her head but was quickly stalled as the other blond balled her fists and continued, "Listen to me Caroline, this isn't up for some kind of debate. You can't trust anyone, no one except Klaus, Elijah, and Rebecca. I get how that sounds, I know what they've put you through, but they're the only ones with the resources to help you, to keep Anna safe. You need to go to New Orleans, find them, and then you need to hide."

"OK stop. Really, just stop. I get that you're freaking out right now, but if you really do know anything about me, you know I'm not just going to follow a stupid plan like 'take desperately important child to Klaus the insane hybrid psychopath'. You've got to give me something else if you want to be even remotely credible."

Her other self stared at her for a moment, assessing the situation, and Caroline gave her the courtesy of remaining silent—curious as to what she could possible come up with to make this plan sound any less crazy and diabolical.

Finally, the other Caroline took a breath, commanding her undivided attention as only Caroline Forbes could, "Klaus killed a lot of people, people you love and cared about. He hunted your friends, plotted against your family, and behaved as you'd expect a psychotic, power hungry hybrid vampire to behave.

"And you should hate him. For everything he's ever done, hell for one percent of the things he's done, you should want him dead and be doing everything in your power to forget you've ever even shared the same space with him."

Her eyes softened, "But you can't. You've tried. Lord knows we tried. We tried to forget that smile, or the way he brushed back your hair on our birthday. You've tried to pretend that a drawing was just a drawing, or a bracelet was just a plastic trinket, but you can't. You can't because something about him nags at you, something you can't put into words makes you search for any alternative to killing him. And when he left, when he kissed your cheek and told you that he'd be your last love, you knew, you felt it in your bones, that he was right. Because no matter how many times you tell yourself you won't listen to that voicemail ever again, in the middle of the night, you play it back, and it calms you.

"You don't get it yet, Caroline, but you and Klaus, you're connected. Not by some doppelganger curse, not some strange supernatural force, you're connected by the most primal, basic necessity of human kind. Love. You love him. He and Anna are your family, Caroline. They're your responsibility. Go to Klaus, he'll have the resources you need to protect Anna, and he will protect her, because she is Klaus's daughter by blood, and there is nothing, no single driving force in all the world, more important to him than family. He'll protect you both, keep you safe, and even though I can't explain it all to you, you need him."

Caroline shook her head, "Look, I appreciate that in the very distant future, Klaus somehow brainwashes me into not thinking he's the world's biggest jerk, but today, he's still at the top of the 'Do not Call" list. And to be honest, your story actually sounded credible, until that bit about the kid being Klaus's. Hello, Vampire!"

The perfect imitation of her snarky declaration shocked her, "Hello, Werewolf! Werewolf, plus werewolf equals baby, but Klaus isn't just a werewolf, and he isn't just a vampire, and in fact, he isn't just an Original, he's ALL of those things, and if you think about it for just two seconds, you'll see that any child of his is going to be a whole lot more than the sum of her parts."

Passion had driven her other self across the room, and in her face, and Caroline had to admit that crazy was not in the other woman's expression, desperation, yes, but not crazy. "Even if you don't believe that this is Klaus's child, you can't deny that if someone really is after her, Klaus is the strongest choice you have in protecting her!"

Taking a step back, Caroline tried to regroup as Anna watched her, "OK, say I believe you. Why are you here? Why not just take Anna to Klaus yourself and be one big happy family?"

Pain entered those familiar eyes, and Caroline watched the other woman look away, before walking towards the window on the far side of the room. Once there, she placed her hand on the lace curtains, "I'm the only one that knows what's going on. We all have our parts to play. I can't go to Klaus myself because someone needs to buy you time. It's all about time." She laughed, the self-depreciation making the sound bitter, "Bonnie offered me a choice, allow thing to happen as they were meant to, or come back, and try to fix my mistakes." She turned back to face Caroline, "I can't be everywhere at once, I can't do what I promised Klaus I'd do, and protect our daughter, by just going back to him. You're the only one who can do this, Caroline. If you fail, Anna dies, or disappears, or worse." She squared her shoulders. "You need to stop lying to yourself and admit that half the time, you don't have a clue what's happening around you, and maybe, just maybe, your future self, might actually know something the great Caroline Forbes doesn't. You, and only you, need to get Anna to her father, and you and only you, need to make sure she survives."

"No disrespect but you can't just—" Suddenly the other Caroline turned, her eyes focusing on the car pulling into the driveway containing the spitting image of Elena, but just as obviously Katherine.

Panic filled blue eyes when they swung back to capture hers, "We're out of time! You need to do exactly what I said! You have to protect Anna; you have to protect our daughter! She's the most important, beautiful, wonderful thing that will ever happen to you Caroline. You have to protect her, you have to get her to our family!" She turned back as Katherine opened the car door. "It's all about time!"

In a flash of abnormally fast vampire speed, she picked up Anna and placed her in Caroline's arms. "Anna, listen to Mommy, I love you. I love you more than the entire world. More than anything. You have to do what your new Mommy tells you, you have to listen to her and be a good girl." She looked over her shoulder at the window before locking her eyes with Caroline's, "She is the best thing you will ever do, your greatest accomplishment, and the love of your life. Keep her safe, and you'll find what you've always wanted."

With a gust of air, and faster than Caroline could ever hope to move, her other self, raced up the stairs, grabbed the waiting suitcases, and threw open the front door. "We said, noon. Don't tell me you're already going to make me regret this trip. We haven't even gotten out of the driveway." Then without a backwards glance, her future self, shut the door, leaving Caroline Forbes holding a toddler, and saddled with a ridiculous save the world mission.

* * *

Interested in this story? Then don't wait, the story is complete and published at Amazon. Enter the title "A Little Hybrid: Klaroline" and enjoy!

322 pages total! Support an author's work at Kindle Worlds!

Thank you everyone!


	2. Chapter 2

I just wanted to respond to a Guest review that stated I was plagiarizing The Vampire Diaries and/or Originals characters. This is not the case. Amazon has a deal with The Vampire Diaries owners through their Kindle Worlds platform whereby fan fiction authors can use the characters to write stories and receive compensation for their work. Google: "Amazon+Kindle Worlds" and you can read more about it.

Also, through Kindle Worlds, authors have to sign an exclusivity agreement so I cannot put this story out for iBook or any other eBook vendors, or publish more than 20% here or on any other site. In addition, the use of this copy written material is only authorized through Amazon's Kindle Worlds.

Lastly, I just wanted to say that the authors do not get to set the price of the books they publish in Kindle Worlds, Amazon does it without any author input.

Thank you so much to everyone who purchases my book, I'm honored to have an opportunity to entertain you.

Soladara


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